Shepard Fairey

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Shepard Fairey came to Philadelphia to meet with inmates at Graterford SCI, members of the Guild (Mural Arts’ re-entry program for formerly incarcerated people), and others involved in Mural Arts’ Restorative Justice program. Based on this dialogue, he developed a series of images that kicked off a massive campaign designed to raise awareness about criminal justice. Going back to the origins of his Andre the Giant sticker, Shepard distributed stickers to the public for mass distribution, engaging in a participatory form of art. He also created two new murals in Philadelphia.

Shepard Fairey was born in Charleston, South Carolina, and received his BFA at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. While at RISD, he created the “Andre the Giant has a Posse” sticker that transformed into the OBEY GIANT art campaign. The OBEY GIANT imagery has changed the way people see art and the urban landscape. In 2009, Fairey’s portrait of Barack Obama was inducted into the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery as the official presidential portrait. Fairey has exhibited in galleries and museums around the world, including: the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; and Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati. His works are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC.

Open Source eventsShepard Fairey on Jasper Johns - October 14Free License: Open Source in Art and Technology with Shepard Fairey and Rich Miner - October 15Philly DJ Mural Block Party Redux - October 16